Following the long summer break, readjusting to the rigors of the school day is challenging for many students. After starting the academic year at one school, it can be even more difficult to readjust if a student has to change schools midyear. The students who effectively navigate these transitions are more likely to stay in school and graduate. From my decades in law enforcement, I can tell you that kids who graduate high school are more likely to lead successful lives as productive adults.
On the flip side of the coin, I know that dropping out of school influences criminal activity. Students who fall off-track and drop out of school are much more likely to fall into trouble and end up behind bars. In fact, high school dropouts are eight times more likely to be incarcerated than high school graduates. We can reverse this trend by working to keep kids in school and increasing graduation rates. Research shows that a 10-percentage-point increase in graduation rates would cut homicides and assaults by 20 percent.
Dropouts also have a major economic impact on the community, costing the state billions of dollars each year. Dropouts cost California over $1 billion annually in juvenile crime alone. Over the course of dropouts’ lifetimes, California incurs an estimated $46 billion in losses, including nearly $12 billion in crime costs.
Reducing dropouts requires a range of solutions, beginning with high-quality early education so students start school ready to succeed. It is also critical to identify students in the K-12 system who show early warning signs for dropping out – like truancy, chronic absence and discipline problems – and provide them with the supports they need to get back on track.
However, when students show signs of trouble, too often they are simply sent away to alternate county community and community day schools, often through a process known as an “involuntary transfer.” For example, a legal loophole permits the involuntary transfer of a student who “wins” an expulsion hearing, often to the same school as expelled students, yet without the same due process protections, including a right to an individualized rehabilitation plan and a timely opportunity to seek readmission to a traditional school. Other students have been transferred to alternative schools only to discover that no enrollment space is available at their new school.
These alternative schools face some of the greatest challenges and highest dropout rates. While they are meant as short-term solutions, students often get stuck indefinitely in what are supposed to be temporary placements. These schools can be most successful if the appropriate students are enrolled for the right reasons and in the right circumstances.
In addition, research shows that changing schools itself can increase the odds of dropping out. In one study, high school students in California who transferred schools – even once – were twice as likely to drop out, after controlling for other factors.
Senate Bill 744, authored by Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, helps address this problem and has widespread support, including from the Orange County Department of Education. It was approved by the Legislature and awaits action by Gov. Jerry Brown.
SB744 provides critical state guidance to establish clear, fair and consistent transfer processes that help ensure due process for students, that transfers meet the educational needs of students and that transferred students can return to a traditional school. It also closes the loophole that allows a student to be essentially expelled despite winning their expulsion hearing.
These changes would help keep more kids in school, on track towards graduation and away from the path to dropping out and crime, making our communities safer and saving California billions of dollars in the process.
Sandra Hutchens is Orange County sheriff.
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